Bookshare - A Conversation with President Betsy Beaumon

Do you have a child who struggles with reading? Does your student fall behind on homework because of trouble with reading? Is reading a torture instead of a pleasure? Bookshare can help.

Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities, Inc. and the Westport Public Library invite you to a conversation with Betsy Beaumon, president of Bookshare, on Monday May 2 to learn about this exciting resource for students with reading challenges. Bookshare is a service that allows students with qualifying reading challenges to upload digital books free of charge to their iPads, iPhones, androids or computers. Bookshare makes over 400,000 titles accessible and downloadable.

The program will be held on Monday May 2, 2016, 7:00pm - 8:30pm at the Westport Library, McManus Room, 20 Jesup Road, Westport, CT. The program is free and no registration is required.

Betsy Beaumon, President of Bookshare, will discuss:

• How the Bookshare program works

• How students can access 400,000+ text-to-speech titles, including options to highlight text and adjust font size

• How to get help from the Westport Library to download and use Bookshare Readers

• How students can qualify to access Bookshare and how to complete the necessary authorization forms. (You don't have to go through the school district!)

Bookshare can help students with visual impairments, physical limitations, learning disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). You don’t need to get approval from the school district to access Bookshare. Requests can approved by a neurologist, family doctor, psychiatrist, learning disability specialist, special education teacher, school psychologist, or clinical psychologist with a background in learning disabilities. More information is available at the Bookshare website: www.bookshare.org

At its 2016 Gala, Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities will present its Community Service Award to Betsy Beaumon. Over the past several years, she has led Benetech’s Global Literacy Program, first as a general manager and now as President of Bookshare. Under Beaumon leadership, Bookshare has grown ten-fold. Beaumon is a recognized authority on digital accessible materials in education and the leader of what she calls the “born accessible” strategy. She has testified on accessibility before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. She serves on the board of Digital Accessible Information System Consortium (DAISY) and the Advisory Board of the National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials (NCAIM).